Anyone who has enjoyed Joss Whedon’s best work (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly/ Serenity) knows that, despite the fact that he genuinely seems to love and care about his characters, always instilling them with humanity and integrity, he also never shies away from exposing their faults and allowing truly, truly ugly and terrible things to happen to them.So it really comes as no surprise that in a recent interview, Whedon remarked that he was planning for horrible things to befall the heroes of The Avengers 2.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight (via /Film), Whedon was questioned about the plot to The Avengers 2, Whedon noted that he had the idea for film before he began The Avengers, and that his goal was to not spend too much of the story on the first film, then have nothing in the tank for the sequel. Oh, and, of course, he’s going to torture all the good guys:

I didn’t think I was gonna do the second one, but I had an idea for it before I had figured out the first one. You go into a movie not assuming that there’s going to be [another one]. I’ve seen plenty of movies that were the first part of the trilogy that never happened and it’s terrible….You don’t save anything for the trip back. Having said that, though, I did sort of know, ‘Well if they were to come back, I know what’s going to happen… it’s going to be awful.’

Further, Whedon stated that The Avengers 2 will begin filming in February of 2014, in order to make the scheduled May 1, 2015 release date.So let the rampant and ceaseless speculation as to which primary character will die begin!